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The snowfall could take weeks to thaw, the Met Office said today as millions of commuters faced being delayed or even stranded tonight in the travel chaos.

Up to six inches of snow fell in just two hours in some parts of the country as most of the UK was blanketed in white and thousands of schools closed their doors. In south Wales, where the Met Office issued a rare “red warning” for 30mph winds and a foot of snow, 10,000 households were left without power this morning and 5,000 homes still had not been fixed this afternoon.

Half of those remain in the worst hit west of Wales where heavy snow on the road network is slowing down repair operations.
"We currently have 5,000 customers off supply and are dealing with 70 incidents on our high voltage network, normally we would expect six in 24 hours," a spokeswoman for Western Power said.

"Over half of these incidents and over 3,000 of these customers are in West Wales. The road network is really badly affected and even with 4X4s we are unable to gain access to many locations.

"We have additional crews attempting to travel in from Brecon and helicopters on standby to move staff into the area when it stops snowing.” But the possibility of further incidents is high as low temperatures are set to continue through the weekend.